Beating the odds, alternatives for grade retention

<< Background >>Within any given class in primary and secondary education, there is typically considerable variation among students. This heterogeneity challenges educational practitioners and policymakers in their attempts to guarantee high educational standards and raises the question how to deal with it. In Europe, many students who are not keeping up with their peers, are requested to repeat their grade, instead of being promoted to the next grade. More specifically, in 2022, in several European countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Portugal, and Austria, at least 1 out of 6 students reported to have been retained at least once by age 15, equalling millions of Europeans students annually. Strong beliefs about the positive effects of grade retention among practitioners play an important role in this matter. However, international research on the effects of grade retention on repeaters’ development has revealed this practice to be non-effective. At the same time, international research has shown that grade repeaters are overrepresented among low-SES students, ethnic minority students, and disabled students, even keeping student achievement constant, suggesting this practice to be highly unfair.<< Objectives >>In our project, we aimed to tackle this unfair practice by professionalizing European practitioners in primary and secondary education with regard to their grade retention beliefs and practices. As such, we aimed to decrease the number of European at-risk students retained in grade and thus increase the number of at-risk students with a successful school career, in line with the objective of the European Commission to combat school failure.<< Implementation >>In order to professionalize European practitioners in primary and secondary education with regard to their grade retention beliefs and practices and thus to reduce grade retention rates in Europe, we implemented several activities. First, we developed several tools for practitioners to self-evaluate their current grade retention beliefs and practices. Second, we developed several tools tapping on practitioners’ grade retention decision-making processes, dreams and values, and knowledge about grade retention research, in order to increase their awareness of the unfairness of this practice. Third, we developed a series of tools on differentiated instruction, allowing practitioners to look for proven-effective alternatives, fitting their needs, as well as the needs of their students and school. We developed a school team version and a single teacher version for each toolbox, allowing practitioners to choose which version to work with, depending on their specific context. Fourth, we implemented and evaluated all tools in several PLCs, allowing us to adapt and refine the tools based on practitioners’ feedback. Fifth, we integrated the final tools in a web portal, easy accessible for practitioners across Europe.<< Results >>Our project generated 6 main results:-R1: a summary of European grade retention legislation and practice-R2: a summary of predictors and effects of grade retention in Europe-R3: a grade retention self-evaluation toolbox for practitioners-R4: a grade retention beliefs-changing toolbox for practitioners-R5: a differentiated instruction toolbox for practitioners-R6: a web portalBeyond these 6 main results, this project generated the following results:-Consolidation and strengthening of the existing collaboration among the 4 participating HEIs-Professionalization of HEI-staff in matters of grade retention and differentiated instruction-Consolidation and strengthening of the existing collaboration among the 4 participating HEIs and their partner primary/secondary schools-Professionalization of primary/secondary school practitioners-A smoother school career among European students, in particular low-SES students, ethnic minority students and disabled students-4 international peer-reviewed journal articles-4 local policy recommendations with regard to grade retention-4 country-specific practice-based journal articles-4 joint presentations at international conferences-7 presentations at local conferences